It was off back to Lam Erin’s Cherishville for my first blog on places to explore in 2023. A locale that changes with the seasons, this Full region was, at the time I dropped in, dressed for winter, although things started to change as this article was being finished (the Christmas village mentioned below poofed, for example), so things may well have changed some more by the time you read this!
As a photographer, Lam has an eye for detail and this is often reflected in his region designs, something which is very much the case here – albeit at a potential cost for some visitors, as the region is very heavily loaded with mesh and – particularly – animated mesh snow; something which prompted me to spend a few minutes de-rendering in order to give my FPS a boost whilst physically exploring the region on foot, rather than camming.
Unlike other changes in iteration, the winter 2023 version of Cherishville actually reflects the autumn 2022 version, which I wrote about in October 2022; the overall design remains largely unchanged, except for the seasonal details replacing the more autumnal – trees denuded of leaves but hung with lanterns, the gently lapping waters of the inlet now frozen and a thick blanket of snow replacing the grass and leaves on the ground – and the likes of snowmen, polar bears and (inevitably), penguins and giant Christmas toy soldiers replacing the horses and cattle.
The fact that Lam has retained the look and feel of the Autumnal 2022 version of Cherishville allows us to witness a very realistic changing of the seasons in a familiar landscape (and indeed, as I missed it, the overall design might hark back as far as summer 2022). Perhaps the most identifiable changes between the autumn and winter settings was the presence of a little Christmas Village tucked into the north-east corner of the region and watched over by the aforementioned giant toy soldiers.
The best way to appreciate the new design is to follow the snowy road as it loops and winds around the region, offering views by turn of the main hamlet, the Christmas village and the frozen inlet where, for reasons best known to himself, Santa has opted to go … skiing.
The road also passes by the other major change from the autumn design, located down in the south-west corner, where a large barn appears to be a place where fir trees were being sold for home decorating through the season (and to which the trucks carrying fir trees might be related). A little hot drinks stall sits alongside the barn and, just beyond it a skating rink with one of those little errors of detail Lam tends to include in his builds: a floating floating serenely a couple of metres above the rink!
With the inlet and the roadside hamlet above it, and the train line and station to the north, there are plenty of opportunities of photography which can be used to contrast the winter design with that of autumn for those who previously visited the latter and wish to make a re-visit.
For my part, however, given I’ve previously described the setting at some length just a few months ago, I’ll shut up here, and instead finished with a couple more images and the suggestion that whether or not you dropped into Cherishville during the autumn, now might be a good time to hop over and catch it in its winter dressing before more changes!
SLurl Details
- Cherishvile Winter (Photos, rated Moderate)
